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Chas McGill posted:This is what I miss most about real books. People talk about the feel of the paper, the smell of a new/old book. What I miss most is hurling a book across the room in a rage. Can't do that with a Kindle. Haha no, it needs a Rage Smash button where a bomb appears on the screen and pretends to burn the book to ashes. But doesn't delete it in case you want to read it again one day.
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Nov 22, 2013 19:07
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Chas McGill posted:This is what I miss most about real books. People talk about the feel of the paper, the smell of a new/old book. What I miss most is hurling a book across the room in a rage. Can't do that with a Kindle. Sure you can! Especially if you have the full "no questions asked" Amazon warranty!
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Nov 22, 2013 19:17
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regulargonzalez posted:If you want long, have I got the series for you: The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (and later, Brandon Sanderson). 13 or 14 books, most of which are pretty good. Particularly at the beginning and end. This is true because when you first start the series your like thirteen and had just finished Tolkien and are full of hope and wonder. Then your just happy it loving ended because gently caress is it terrible within a couple of books.
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Nov 23, 2013 04:24
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Thanks for those recommendations on the last page guys. They look really promising.
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Nov 23, 2013 06:17
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robotsinmyhead posted:I'm looking for something new in the same kind of realm as Cyberpunk (Neuromancer, et al), Judge Dredd, Clockwork Orange / Altered Quasi Future hellscapes kinda things. Nothing far-future sci-fi, but dark and moody. I've exhausted PKD and Gibson, as well as Mieville and some other Fantasy/Sci-Fi stuff so far and I want to read something kinda raw and vicious. You should check out TC McCarthy's Subterrene War Trilogy. It's near future set on a really hosed up Earth where the superpowers are always at war in the areas of the planet that still have resources worth exploiting. The war parts of the books are very much like a cyberpunk version of Vietnam War books I've read, it definitely qualifies as raw and vicious. All three books can be read as standalone novels too.
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Nov 23, 2013 07:15
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My brother will be interning at The Hague next year. Would you happen to know of any good books about the International Criminal Court, or maybe the history of the Netherlands? He's a law student.
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Nov 24, 2013 18:09
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savinhill posted:You should check out TC McCarthy's Subterrene War Trilogy. It's near future set on a really hosed up Earth where the superpowers are always at war in the areas of the planet that still have resources worth exploiting. The war parts of the books are very much like a cyberpunk version of Vietnam War books I've read, it definitely qualifies as raw and vicious. All three books can be read as standalone novels too. You loving guys. I wanted one book to read and now I have 12.
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Nov 24, 2013 18:40
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BrosephofArimathea posted:On the offchance you havent read them, David Simon's Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets and The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood are both engrossing and depressing - especially the latter, which went on to become a 7 part series for HBO and then the foundation for the best television series of all time, The Wire. I was digging through my wife's books and found The Corner. I've been wanting to watch The Wire since forever. If I read this, is that show going to be spoiled by it at all? It looks really interesting.
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Nov 25, 2013 04:32
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Philthy posted:I was digging through my wife's books and found The Corner. There are a couple vignette-type bits that are used in the show, and the general themes definitely carry over, but it won't spoil the show itself at all. The show is much better than the book imo.
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Nov 25, 2013 14:08
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I am a small child who generally doesn't usually read nonfiction unless it's about animals (or my profession, I guess). That's dumb, and I should probably fix it. Any good recommendations for non-boring nonfiction? Things that are both real and terrifying would be best.
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Nov 26, 2013 02:32
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ArmadilloConspiracy posted:I am a small child who generally doesn't usually read nonfiction unless it's about animals (or my profession, I guess). That's dumb, and I should probably fix it. Any good recommendations for non-boring nonfiction? Things that are both real and terrifying would be best. Goon favorite The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is a history about a serial killer in fin de siecle Chicago. It's very well written. Night by Elie Wiesel, about his experience at Buchenwald and Auschwitz, Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer. Depending on what you consider terrifying. Anthony Beevor’s Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943 and Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam's Holiest Shrine by Yaroslav Trofimov
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Nov 26, 2013 03:39
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I need to get back into reading. Bad. Last half dozen books that I absolutely loved were The Giver, Rendezvous with Rama (the sequels not as much), Ender's Game, I greatly enjoy most Michael Chricton books my favorites being Jurassic Park, Airframe, The Andromeda Strain etc. I seem to like books that are easy to read, almost like like Young Adult books and I really enjoy long books as I read fairly quickly. I enjoyed Stephen King's Under The Dome (my first King novel) but got about 3/4 of the way through The Stand and realized I just didn't care that much for it. So there's that. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you guys.
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Nov 29, 2013 16:53
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Disappointing Pie posted:I need to get back into reading. Bad. I think you would really enjoy Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds.
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Nov 29, 2013 17:02
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Disappointing Pie posted:I need to get back into reading. Bad. If you liked The Giver, you may like its sequel, Gathering Blue. A longer YA novel that's a little bit sci-fi is Life as We Knew It, which deals with an catastrophic event that has nothing to do with zombies. If you want a little more action than either of them, I'm currently enjoying James Dashner's Maze Runner series.
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Nov 29, 2013 19:09
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If I loved James Ellroy's LA Quartet and was lukewarm towards American Tabloid, will I like the Lloyd Hopkins Trilogy?
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Nov 29, 2013 20:58
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Can I get some recommendations for stuff that really unsettling / creepy or just straight up psychological horror? I prefer short stories, but I'll always go for something longer too. I love subtle horror that creeps up on the reader, but it's pretty hard to find. Most horror pubs, online or in print, seem to be awash with ghosts and vampires and zombies and eldritch horrors. edit: In case it helps, genre isn't a big deal. I liked Blindsight and A Colder War (the latter being Lovecraftian, but in a good way), and Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt," and I also enjoyed more "literary" stuff that might not even be classified as outright horror, such as O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the always-popular "The Lottery," and "The Bath" by Raymond Carver. Basically, stuff from any genre that doesn't rely on the literary equivalent of jump-scares to be creepy. Bikini Quilt fucked around with this message at 21:56 on Nov 30, 2013 |
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Nov 30, 2013 21:52
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Full Fathoms Five posted:Can I get some recommendations for stuff that really unsettling / creepy or just straight up psychological horror? I prefer short stories, but I'll always go for something longer too. I love subtle horror that creeps up on the reader, but it's pretty hard to find. Most horror pubs, online or in print, seem to be awash with ghosts and vampires and zombies and eldritch horrors. Novel length suggestions: Blindness House of Leaves Novella: The Turn of the Screw and The Beast in the Jungle, both by Henry James
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Nov 30, 2013 23:05
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Full Fathoms Five posted:Can I get some recommendations for stuff that really unsettling / creepy or just straight up psychological horror? I prefer short stories, but I'll always go for something longer too. I love subtle horror that creeps up on the reader, but it's pretty hard to find. Most horror pubs, online or in print, seem to be awash with ghosts and vampires and zombies and eldritch horrors. You might try Michel Faber's Under the Skin. It seems at first as a very straightforward serial killer tale but quickly turns into something altogether different and incredibly intriguing and thought provoking. Highly recommended. Stefan Kiesbye wrote a series of interconnected stories about children in a very small German town in the 70's called 'Your House is on Fire, Your Children All Gone' which are very nasty, dark tales about nasty evil children, very much along the lines of early Grimm's fairy tales before they were Disneyfied. If you enjoy Shirley Jackson you should try her novels The Haunting of Hill House and also We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Cormac McCarthy gets a lot of praise here, and 2 of his darkest works in my opinion are the incredibly stellar Blood Meridian, or as an introduction to McCarthy's work, Child of God. Ian Banks' The Wasp Factory just got read here recently with the book barn reading club and that is one creepy f'ed up book. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn also really gets lumped into this category of book quite often. I always mention this because I really think anyone looking for a very different kind of horror novel should check out Will Elliot's excellent 'The Pilo Family Circus'. So amazingly bizarre and entertaining.
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Nov 30, 2013 23:13
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Full Fathoms Five posted:Can I get some recommendations for stuff that really unsettling / creepy or just straight up psychological horror? I prefer short stories, but I'll always go for something longer too. I love subtle horror that creeps up on the reader, but it's pretty hard to find. Most horror pubs, online or in print, seem to be awash with ghosts and vampires and zombies and eldritch horrors. More Bradbury: Something Wicked This Way Comes, The October Game (short story), The Martian Chronicles (short stories, loosely connected, lots of psychological stuff). Perhaps throwing in the short story The Miracles of Jamie. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Cut Glass Bowl, which is a short story. The Long Walk is a Stephen King that's pretty subtle and it's a shorter one. If you want to try it, don't even read any plot descriptions. Just go into it blind. It's best that way. Seconding the Shirley Jackson suggestions.
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Dec 1, 2013 04:55
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Blake Butler is a new young guy that works right in that corner. His stuff makes my skin crawl in a good way.
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Dec 2, 2013 01:33
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Also read "the semplica girl diaries" from George Saunders. Shudder. http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2012/10/15/121015fi_fiction_saunders?mobify=0&intcid=full-site-mobile&mobify=0
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Dec 2, 2013 01:35
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I'm looking for some recommendations for a good non-fiction space exploration book. I've been on a sci-fi binge lately and realized how much I enjoy EVA problem solving scenarios, so I want to dive into some real-life stuff.
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Dec 3, 2013 00:36
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I like Jonathan Safran Foer, his wife Nicole Krauss and some of the stuff I've read from his teacher Joyce Carol Oates. Like his stuff quite a bit more than theirs though. Who should I read?
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Dec 3, 2013 10:57
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Are there any good, well-written, credible books on body language?
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Dec 3, 2013 16:55
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Franchescanado posted:Are there any good, well-written, credible books on body language? It's primarily focused on international business etiquette, but I found Roger Axtell's Do's and Taboos to be a pretty interesting book. Not exactly what you're looking for, but it might scratch the itch a bit.
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Dec 3, 2013 17:38
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WarpZealot posted:I'm looking for some recommendations for a good non-fiction space exploration book. I've been on a sci-fi binge lately and realized how much I enjoy EVA problem solving scenarios, so I want to dive into some real-life stuff. I really enjoyed The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. It covers the human drama of the space race really well.
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Dec 3, 2013 18:30
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olin posted:I like Jonathan Safran Foer, his wife Nicole Krauss and some of the stuff I've read from his teacher Joyce Carol Oates. Like his stuff quite a bit more than theirs though. Who should I read? JSF is my favorite writer, I'll go through my bookshelves later to see if I can find anyone else you might like. Off the top of my head, Tea Obreht's The Tiger's Wife reminded me a lot of Everything is Illuminated (to a fault). Edit: What do you like best about his writing? I only ask because Oates's writing is quite different from Foer's, so I need to know what I'm looking for 
elbow fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Dec 4, 2013 |
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Dec 3, 2013 21:31
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I'm not a big reader but my wife got me a Kindle on Black Friday and I've not been able to put it down. The problem is, I'm really, really picky on the stuff that I read. Not that it has to be something amazing or life changing, but instead only a certain type of book keeps my interest. Right now I'm reading the Jack Reacher books and I really like them and want something similar. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a series that follows a group of detectives or a police squad. Andy Sipowitcz is my favorite TV character ever and if I could find a series about a cop like that or a show like NYPD Blue I'm pretty sure I'd never put it down.
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Dec 5, 2013 15:45
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suddenlyissoon posted:I'm not a big reader but my wife got me a Kindle on Black Friday and I've not been able to put it down. The problem is, I'm really, really picky on the stuff that I read. Not that it has to be something amazing or life changing, but instead only a certain type of book keeps my interest. Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series is the classic series on which all other police procedurals are based, including NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, etc. First book is "Cop Hater". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/87th_Precinct
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Dec 5, 2013 16:00
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series is the classic series on which all other police procedurals are based, including NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, etc. First book is "Cop Hater". If that suggestion seems interesting, you also might like The Big Sin. Nice thing about this one is it has a free sample so you can see if you're interested before forking over the cash. I have liked the series well enough that every now and then I buy the next one.
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Dec 5, 2013 20:29
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suddenlyissoon posted:I'm not a big reader but my wife got me a Kindle on Black Friday and I've not been able to put it down. The problem is, I'm really, really picky on the stuff that I read. Not that it has to be something amazing or life changing, but instead only a certain type of book keeps my interest. You might like the Robert Crais Elvis Cole / Joe Pike books. The Reacher books are fun until the last few where they seem to have lost direction.
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Dec 5, 2013 20:41
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I don't know if anyone's noticed, but Amazon is doing a deal called the 12 Days of Deals that started on the 2nd. Every day they're putting up a set of popular ebooks on sale for less than $4. I've already gotten The Goldfinch, If On A Winter's Night A Traveler, Underworld (DeLillo), The Cuckoo's Calling, In One Person (Irving), The Cider House Rules (Irving), The Man Who Folded Himself, Don Quixote (Grossman translation), Stardust, Blindness, John Dies at the End, and Endless Night (Christie), all for $2 a piece. Today's deals are: Cat's Cradle (Vonnegut)- A classic Vonnegut Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks (by Ken Jennings the Jeopardy guy) Grub Line Rider (Louis L'Amour) Open Range (Lauran Paine) There are others, but nothing that stands out. Today looks like a weaker day, too. They're putting other books up on sale as if by random, and not advertising it, so if I find something, I don't mind putting it in this thread. (Sorry if there's a more appropriate thread for this, I figured it would be good here.)
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Dec 6, 2013 16:11
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Franchescanado posted:
Is there anyway to get these onto iBooks?
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Dec 6, 2013 17:08
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about 12 Days of Deals.
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I have no idea. But the Kindle App is free for Apple devices. I did find this How-To from google. Maybe that'll help? How To Read Kindle Books In iBooks, And Keep Your Library In The Cloud
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Dec 6, 2013 17:13
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I actually really like that we have this in the recommendation thread, because I've been looking at the deals everyday, but I have no idea which ones are any good. So, it would be cool if people would chime in if they see one of these that they really enjoyed.
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Dec 6, 2013 17:27
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Are there any good books on the science of sleeping and dreaming? Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep is pretty good example. I know it's kind of a broad subject, but I'm looking for any good books that cover any aspect of the subject. Dream Logic/Psychology, the chemistry involved, dream disorders, etc. Really, anything. I'd like to stick to science and psychology, but fiction that deals with it in an interesting and/or informative way would be cool too. (I've read some of Freud's works, and have looked into C.G. Jung, but I don't know where to start with the latter.)
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Dec 6, 2013 22:12
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I can't vouch for it personally, but I've heard good things about Hobson's book.
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Dec 7, 2013 02:16
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Can anyone recommend some whodunit-style mysteries? Looking for more recent stuff, have already read tons of books by people like Christie, Sayers etc. and want something with that type of plot but set in the present. There must be some good books out there in all the thousands of "cosy" mysteries but all the random ones I've tried from the library have been rubbish. It doesn't really have to be a cosy but no serial killers or psychological thrillers or things like that. I'm looking for a light read with a limited pool of suspects and a nice puzzle. Does that make anything come to mind? I don't need this stuff to be terribly amazing; I just need entertainment for some long flights next week. Would appreciate any suggestions.
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Dec 7, 2013 08:15
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The Duke of Avon posted:Can anyone recommend some whodunit-style mysteries? Looking for more recent stuff, have already read tons of books by people like Christie, Sayers etc. and want something with that type of plot but set in the present. There must be some good books out there in all the thousands of "cosy" mysteries but all the random ones I've tried from the library have been rubbish. It doesn't really have to be a cosy but no serial killers or psychological thrillers or things like that. I'm looking for a light read with a limited pool of suspects and a nice puzzle. Does that make anything come to mind? I don't need this stuff to be terribly amazing; I just need entertainment for some long flights next week. Would appreciate any suggestions. Hrm. They're not quite english country house cosy mysteries but you could try something like the Travis McGee mysteries or the Spenser novels. Though even those are more 1970's-'80s, which I guess is only the present if you're old like me.
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Dec 7, 2013 09:25
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This will sound like a weird ask, but I'm moving to England next year and am trying to re-stoke my flagging Anglophilia. What are some good books that are really, solidly, y'know... English? Across any genre. Examples of what I mean which I've already read would include Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell, Wolf Hall, The Day of the Triffids, Black Swan Green. Examples I've thought of but haven't read yet include stuff by Dickens, the Sherlock Holmes stories, the Raffles stories and stuff by PG Wodehouse.
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Dec 8, 2013 03:29
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